What's at the farmers market in spring?

Recently Cheryl took food writer and blogger Shu Han Lee on a market tour to see what's in season in spring and what's good to cook. Shu Han shared some of her recipes with us, see below.

March and April at market are months when we have what are known as the hungry gap. This means that winter vegetables that have been stored are ending, and spring vegetables aren't ready for harvest yet. We're often unaware of this because supermarkets stock their shelves with produce from all over the world. Recipes with the word 'spring' or 'primavera' often include ingredients such as peas, broad beans and asparagus. We now have asparagus at market, earlier than the traditional St George's Day appearance around the 23rd April.

Shu used to manage one of our markets and appreciates cooking seasonally. Check out her blog Mummy I can Cook here. We were at market before the appearance of asparagus, but there was still plenty of produce on display including land cress, radishes, spring greens, Russian kale, cauliflowers, purple and white sprouting broccoli, wild garlic, sorrel, rhubarb and leeks.

Inspired by the Norfolk herrings at market, here's one of Shu's recipes for roasted herrings. 

Find more recipes on our recipes page